the drunkenness of Noah as establishng that sin cannot be removed from the world by punishment alone

The more fundamental the particle, the less sense it makes to think of it as not a part of a larger system, i.e., the less sense it makes to think of it in abstraction from its context. This clearly starts to be true even before isolation becomes impossible.

the parallels between organisms and caves

Two substances become one substance. Either (1) there is only the one substance; or (2) the two substances are still complete substances but also incomplete substances; or (3) the two substances are now only incomplete substances.

Frankfurt examples all involve cooperative action of some kind;that is why they are outside a given power to choose.

Analytic philosophy seems throughout to have difficulty with reduplication.

virtual inexistence as a mereological parthood relation

Humean metaphysics as an attack on principiation (substance, cause, identity, rational primacy, sovereignty)
-- but as Shepherd notes, it requires one kind (impressions as principles of ideas) and regularly frames things in ways suggestive of principiation (mind/imagination expressed in principle terms is very common)

neutral mutations as shifting potential for future pathways (e.g., a mtuation that itself makes no difference might replace something that would have made some possible pathways nonviable or it might make some pathways reachable in the future, allowing for other conditions, being able to change survival/reproduction under different circumstances)

'Ockham's Razor' cannot be applied without consideration of causes; parsimony is an implicitly causal notion.

'X is explainable in terms of Y' does not suffice for 'X is reducible to Y'.

chemical reactions as parts of vital activities

the category of relatio as anti-reductionist 9A being related to B, categorically, implies that no reduction is possible without including B, and thus is locally resistant to reduction)

the relation between knowledge and intimacy

In an error-ridden world, understanding requires repentance.

Accounts in which nothing can be both sublime and beautiful are defective accounts of both sublimity and beauty.

diversifications of beauty
(1) according to how it is seen
(2) according to how it pleases
e.g., picturesque is what pleases on being seen with painter's eye; charm is what pleases with calm sensible pleasure on being seen; intelligible beauty is what pleases on being seen in the intellectual sense; harmony is what pleases on being 'seen' i.e., perceived, by ear, etc.

Nothing can be an inference license unless it is also something else, which can then serve to license in whatever particular way it does.

We appear to learn what logical implications are by first thinking of them indirectly in causal terms.

Knowing how to use modal vocabulary requires knowing more than the modal vocabulary.

sensation belongs to intentional order
(1) aptness for judgment
(2) suitability for being treated as knowing in a broad sense
(3) sensation is naturally understood in the same structural way as intentional cognition
(4) the features of sensation Berkeley identifies as language-like
-- note that Sellars makes the 'intellect in the real order' what a Thomist would call an internal sense; indeed, Sellars' account ends up being a good account of internal sense, at least in human beings.

Beyond very narrow limits, reductionism seems to be mostly a set of excuses for not having to take seriously what everyone recognizes, including the reductionist in practice.

the problem of developing energy sources that are simultaneously safe, distributed, and dispatchable

Bodily integrity is always with respect to our ends as rational animals, which make us whole as rational animal bodies.

People need a vocabulary to think at length of anything profound.

To appreciate a system of thought one must stroll around it as if it were a city.

Lk 2:52 & confirmation
Lk 2:52 // 1 Sam 2:26 // Pr 3:34

constrained outlets for buffoonery as an important aspect of society-building

moral sentimentalism as perspectival approach to ethics (Hume recognizes this very well)

anticipatory signs as having a different structure from memorial signs

casuistics as ethics of reasonable doubt

Experimentation is equipment behavior analysis.

Angels are only known qua intermediate causes.

Marriage obligates more than the immediately involved parties.

Much rhetorical maneuver in argument is concerned with shifting the assumed domain; this is why avoiding ignoratio elenchi is often important.

title to heaven under claim of inheritance; title to heaven under claim of reward

the refreshing of intellectual systems
(1) by new examples
(2) by further extension
(3) by shift of perspective
(4) by practical use
(5) by historical rediscovery

knowledge of other minds as quasi-memory

Lk 1:45 & Lk 11:28 : we participate or share the faith of Mary; Mary's faith as model of ours

other minds & the sense of something as ours

The human person is that in which a world is known.

the act of writing as a full cognitive loop: idea - imagination - mechanical implementation - sensation - reflection on the written - idea

The mind needs an immense amount of pollination.

the historical books of the Bible & (1) the elusiveness of perfection (2) the importance of repentance (3) the possibility of restoration

The infinity of God requires that every revelation of Him be layered.

reason as the field of evangelism

prototyping, testing, & monitoring of experimental apparatus

the corporate liabilities of the human race

signative, pictorial, and perceptual intending

the structural beauty of well designed law

Mathematical consensus seems to be built on the basis of tiny problems linked together.

zero as universal part for natural numbers (successor function as mereological)

sanctioning authority as arising out of completeness of care

recognition as one of the fundamental principles of fine art

Historical dating is a thoroughly causal exercise (this is esp. clear with regard to testimonial evidence, such as Assyrian record of the 763 BC eclipse, but is also true of more complicated forms of dating, like the use of the Thera eruption, and methods used, like radiocarbon or tree rings).

synchronisms as common-cause effects (independent attestation)

condign vs congruous punishment

The loyalty of men arises from participation in what is great, and nothing saps it like refusing to recognize that participation (as when superiors take credit for the work of subordinates).

It is a common error to confuse 'All physical effects are part of a physical causal system' and 'All physical effects have physical causes'.

metaphors as activation keys for reasoning

If the Land symbolically represents Torah and the Church, 'be strong and of good courage' is also a hermeneutic principle, and a principle for dealing with heresy.

prayer of the saints for those on earth 2Macc 15;14

1 Macc and Aquinas' arguments for military religious order 2-2.188.3

metaphor as a means of compressing inference

How evidence is esteemed affects how it is weighed.

The 'desert base' is a constitutive cause of deserving (its form).

All experience is an experience of the potential become actual.

Mary as Queen of Courtesy

Oppression by taxation is not the most violent oppression; but history shows it to be one of the most devastating, because it does not cease.

One often finds people criticized for being otherworldly, but there is precious little evidence that thisworldly thinkers make less of a hash of things than otherworldly thinkers.

the Babbage principle: "The master manufacturer, by dividing the work to be executed into different processes, each requiring different degrees of skill or of force, can purchase exactly that precise quantity of both which is necessary for each process; whereas if the whole work were executed by one workman, that person must possess sufficient skill to perform the most difficult, and sufficient strength to execute the most laborious, of the operations into which the art is divided."

That is actually intelligible which is intellectually active.

The wise learn even from the foolish; the foolish do not learn even from the wise.

faith as the victory of justice (Is 42:6-7; 1 Jn 5:1-9)

If Christ intercedes with the Father, teh saints of His Body intercede with the Father in and through Him.

pain, pleasure, and natural desert

Effort alone is never a basis for desert. Desert is tied more closely to the ends of what is deserved than anything to do with the action of doing what deserves (which is not to say that the latter is always irrelevant -- that depends on the ends).

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Caveats

For a rough introduction to my philosophy of blogging, including the Code of Amiability I try to follow on this weblog, please read my fifth anniversary post. I consider blogging to be a very informal type of publishing - like putting up thoughts on your door with a note asking for comments. Nothing in this weblog is done rigorously: it's a forum to let my mind be unruly, a place for jottings and first impressions. Because I consider posts here to be 'literary seedings' rather than finished products, nothing here should be taken as if it were anything more than an attempt to rough out some basic thoughts on various issues. Learning to look at any topic philosophically requires, I think, jumping right in, even knowing that you might be making a fool of yourelf; so that's what I do. My primary interest in most topics is the flow and structure of reasoning they involve rather than their actual conclusions, so most of my posts are about that. If, however, you find me making a clear factual error, let me know; blogging is a great way to get rid of misconceptions.